Biography of Clarence Manthey
T-5, Battery A, 467th AAA Bn,, 18th AAA Group, 49th AAA BDE, First Army, V Corps, US Army, D-Day
Clarence Manthey related the following to me some years before he passed away. There are no names in the account because I didn't put them in my notes. Clare remembered all of their names perfectly without hesitation. He is a good friend of my father's but my contact with him previously was limited to watching him march in Memorial Day parades in his fatigues, and fire the salute on the courthouse lawn. This was the first time I had talked with him at length.
On D-Day Clare was a 37mm gunner/aimer on a half-track. His rank was T-4 or like a corporal. He later found out he should have been a T-5 or sergeant for that job. There were 50 men and 5 half-tracks in his platoon. That first day, half were casualties and 4 of 5 half-tracks were destroyed. 5 were killed and 20 wounded. I think that is part of the reason this story is short. That and the limited time I had to talk to him. Clarence's closing words were, "It is something I will always remember".
Larry Schultz
"We were in a marshaling area in the south of England. They had set up tents for us. The Germans flew over regularly. I remember one reconnaissance plane that came over at night. They caught him square in a searchlight. There were some women manning an anti-aircraft gun near us and I was sure they would soon shoot it down. But they kept missing it. I thought to myself 'What is going on, why don't they shoot it down?'. Then I realized that they were purposely shooting behind it just to drive him away. I guess they felt if it were shot down right here it would probably kill or injure a number of people on the ground.
When a reconnaissance plane came over we were all supposed to freeze in place. But once, some poor guy couldn't stand it and just started running. Everyone yelled at him to freeze and finally he did, right in the middle of a field, just like a post.
Another time, a German fighter attacked the marshaling area. We were in our tent and he dropped a bomb which passed over the tent close enough that it actually caused the tent to raise off the ground a ways. It impacted into the ground before exploding and throwing dirt everywhere. It is good it exploded that way because I don't think anyone was injured by shrapnel that time. Coming out of the tent, I noticed some officer had dropped his change all over the ground while diving for cover. I didn't pick it up, I wanted to see who would come back and get it.
Before D-Day we were taken down to board our LCT, at Portsmouth I think. We couldn't really tell because all street signs and city names were blacked out everywhere. We were out in the channel on June 5th when a message came through that the landing would be delayed 24 hours. So the ships headed back toward port. There was a German reconnaissance plane over us at the time and maybe that convinced him it was only an exercise. While in the channel, one of our gunners came up to me and said 'Clarence, I am really sick, what can I do?' I told him he had to tell somebody who could do something about it and I pointed out a coast guard officer. I saw him talking to the guy and the next time a boat came alongside, he left on it. I didn't think badly of him, I assumed he was telling the truth. But when we went in, our gun crew was one man short.
When we landed, our LCT was one of the few to get close enough to drop us off on dry land. But that was bad for the LCT because the tide was going out and it was stuck there. As we came on to the beach I noticed all these rows of guys lying on the beach with their rifles pointed inland. They were all dead.
When our half-track drove onto the beach we were stopped with a 12 foot tank trap in front of us, a minefield on the right, and we didn't know it right then but there was a camouflaged German coastal gun to our left. They had covered it with chicken wire, covered that with sod, and had grass hanging down over the opening. With the smokeless powder they were using, all you could have seen when they fired would be the grass poofing out.
We did see a target up the hill to fire at. But we couldn't depress the gun barrel enough because all our duffel bags were stacked underneath it. We kept yelling to the driver to pull it to the right so we could turn the gun and depress it further, but as it turned out the driver and our squad leader had left. We could see the other half-tracks getting hit on both sides of us. One burning half-track which had bangalore torpedoes in the back was lifted four feet off the ground when they exploded.
I told the men, 'Grab your helmets, rifle, and ammunition, and let's get off this thing'. I took cover behind some logs. Then I noticed the driver going back to get ammunition for his Thompson submachine gun. It seemed like he stood there next to the half-track for a very long time. I was thinking, 'What is he waiting for?'. Then a German shell flew in and hit the half-track and killed the driver. There was smoke pouring out from under the hood of the half-track, burning wiring I suppose. But the next thing you know, there are a bunch of guys from my squad and more from another squad looking under the hood to see what is burning in there! Can you imagine, it is just hit by an enemy shell, and they want to find out what is burning in there!
There was one half-track down by the LCT yet with the engine off. I knew what they wanted. They wanted to go back out with that LCT. Then a German shell came in and hit the LCT. They got that half-track started right away and moved up.
There was an abandoned half-track with the engine running and I reached in and turned it off. A sniper started firing and I took cover behind the half-track. There was some kind of grass on the other side of the half-track with very big heads on top. The sniper couldn't see me and just kept shooting through that grass, knocking the heads off. He must have had a scope because eventually he shot through the one foot gap in the bogie wheels and knicked my thumb. I moved back about a foot so he could no longer see me.
At one point, during a mortar attack I took cover in a German latrine. It was interesting that next to it they had good signs telling just where the minefields were. I suppose they didn't want their soldiers wandering into the minefield. There was another guy in there with me. He said, 'Let's get out of here before we get splattered!'
Toward evening I looked around for a safe place to spend the night. There was an old W.W.I French 75mm gun in an abandoned German pillbox. It had this great big armor plate on the front and that is where I spent the night. When I woke up in the morning, there was a lieutenant lying next to me who had given me a hard time in boot camp. He had his helmet jammed on so tight he couldn't get it off.
That next day we moved up from the beach toward Trevaires (sp?). One guy with us was a Cajun from Louisiana and knew French. A French farmer made it known to us that he wanted to give us a drink of cognac. They had told us if this happened always to have them drink first. So he had 3 or 4 to convince us it was safe and then we had a drink with him!
Along the way I noticed a guy who was killed by a sniper with a hole through the helmet. The helmets would only protect you from shrapnel, you know. He had the pictures of his family in the helmet. But eventually a guy came along who needed a helmet and took it.
I was now an extra gunner on a different half-track and rode between the gun and the fuel tank. I could see over the rock walls which lined the road. As we drove along, I spotted a German sniper far off in a tree. So they swung the 50's around and knocked him out of the tree. About then a brigadier general came up and said, 'Who gave orders to fire, there aren't any Germans within 20 miles?' A guy taking cover in the ditch said, 'Who's shooting at us then?' And one of the gunners showed him a musette bag he was carrying that had a hole in it where the sniper had just missed him. I thought, 'This is a heckuva war if we have to wait for someone to tell us to fire.' The general just walked off.
We set up our tents at an airstrip the engineers were repairing. A B-24 flew nearby smoking, and out came 6 chutes. The B-24 then began diving straight at our gun position. The squad scattered, one toward a tree, another into a garbage pit. At the last moment the B-24 pulled up and then crashed. Only the tail stuck out of the ground.
One day I was left alone at the gun position. I noticed this engineer with a rifle and bayonet between two trees, standing guard. Every so often he would visit a nearby farm and return. I walked over to talk to him. While we were talking, a German fighter who had cut his engine so we couldn't hear him popped over the trees and strafed the half-track I just came from.
I started back and he says, 'Halt - Password - Rabbit'. Luckily they had given me the password and I said, 'Wolf,...What's the matter with you, I just got done talking to you?' He said, 'Oh, yeah, Pass on.' That guy later stuck a buddy in the arm in a foxhole with that bayonet. I think he was drinking during those visits to the farm...
Another time, we heard the sound of an airplane engine and got ready to fire the 37mm. We fired but it went high. They all said, 'Why did you shoot high?' 'Because it sounds like a Piper Cub to me.' I told them. We put another shell in but it jammed. We had been warned that the 37mm HE was very touchy and we should be careful. I asked the other gunner, do you want to pull back the breech or pull out the shell. He said, 'I'll pull back the breech'. So I carefully got the shell out and called the demolition squad. A little while later, two guys in a jeep pulled up. I carefully handed it to them......And they casually tossed it under the seat and drove away!
Later on, I was transferred into the MPs and had a chance to go to work for CIC counter intelligence in Luxembourg, but I liked the men in the unit I was in so I stayed. We were transferred to the Pacific and I was on the USS Admiral Eberly sailing to the Philippines when Japan surrendered."
Letter of Commendation for D-Day, from V Corps Commander, Major General L. T. Gerow & First Army Commander, Lt. General Omar. N. Bradley
Letter of Commendation for D-Day, from 49th AAA Brigade Commander, Brigadier General E. W. Timberlake & 18th AAA Group Commander, Colonel Thomas W. Munford
Letter of Commendation for D-Day, from 467th AAA Automatic Weapon Self Propelled Battalion Commander, Lt. Colonel Cecil G. Remington
Letter of Commendation for D-Day from A Battery Commander, Captain Raymond T. Napier,
----- Clarence Manthey, as related to Larry Schultz
Email removed on request to avoid spam
Hyman Haas, Sergeant, Battery A, 467th Anti Aircraft Artillery Battalion (SP), USA. The story of another man in the 467th that day, same Battery, but different section or perhaps different platoon
Many of the stories contained in the online James F. Justin Museum of Military History are now in paperback and kindle ebook format, with more coming, check out
How We Served, by John Kenneth Justin
Also, Please help this site preserve our history, become a Patron today. Become a Patron!
LINKS
BACK TO James F. Justin Civilian Conservation Corps Museum Biographies
BACK TO JUSTIN ORAL HISTORY ARMY BIOGRAPHIES HISTORY PAGE
Also Be Sure to Visit
James F. Justin, Civilian Conservation Corps Museum
Justin Museum of Military History
Please Share your Stories! E-mail the Curator to share or discuss or with any questions!
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The URL of this page is below
http://www.justinmuseum.com/oralbio/mantheyclarencebio.html
Copyright 2021 John Justin, All Rights Reserved